1. Field
The present invention is related to using ViewTypes for accessing and operating on instance data structured by a base model.
2. Description of the Related Art
An Essential Meta-Object Facility (EMOF) specification describes a framework for describing and representing metadata (i.e., data describing other data). The EMOF specification provides EMOF model constructs that enable creation of metadata models. A metadata model includes objects described by EMOF classes (defined by the EMOF model), links that connect objects described by EMOF associations, and data values. An EMOF class may include a class name, attributes, operations, association references, and other elements. An association reference enables an EMOF object to be “aware” of being in a relationship with other objects via an association, and the relationship links may be navigated or traversed to get to other data in the model (e.g., to perform operations on objects in a metadata model). An EMOF class may inherit characteristics (e.g., attributes, operations, etc.) from other EMOF classes.
Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a notational language for specifying and visualizing software, (e.g., object-oriented projects) and was developed by the Object Management Group (OMG). An EMOF metadata model may be represented using a UML model. For more information regarding EMOF and UML, see the World Wide Web, omg.org.
When defining an EMOF-based model in a relational database, the resulting relational database schema needed for representing the EMOF-based model may be substantially complex. Consequently, dealing with instance data for classes of the model can also be very complicated.
Thus, there is a need in the art for more simply defining and using an EMOF-based model.